This disclosure relates generally to electric vehicle service equipment (EVSE) employed for charging the battery power supply of an electric vehicle. More particularly, this disclosure relates to devices and methods for installing EVSE in connection with residential installations.
The increased popularity of electric vehicles has been coupled with the increased numbers of installations of EVSE to provide charging terminals. The installation of EVSE typically requires the services of an electrician to ensure that the EVSE is operating properly and that the EVSE installation is safe.
Standards have been adopted by The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and various governmental and professional organizations for providing a standard electrical connection and protocol between the land based electrical power supply and the battery charging unit of the electrical vehicle. This is typically implemented in the form of J1772 connectors.
When installing an EVSE, it is necessary to test the unit, to ensure its proper performance, before connecting to an electric vehicle. An installer typically will not have access to an electric vehicle, and it is recommended to use the electric vehicle as a tester. Therefore, there is a need for an EVSE tester that is portable and easy to use that tests all operating and safety functions of a newly installed EVSE. There is also a need for a tester that not only tests the operation and safety functions, but will also display the various performance values when the EVSE fails the “go/no go” requirements.
This disclosure pertains to two such tester devices. The first device is a go/no go tester to simply determine if the EVSE is performing within specifications. The second device is not only used to test the EVSE, but to display the values of each test to better determine the root cause of a failure.